In this connection it is interesting that Turnbull first hit the headlines as lawyer for expatriate MI5 officer Peter Wright, who in the 1980s published his autobiography Spycatcher from his new home in Australia, defying the efforts of Margaret Thatcher’s government to maintain MI5’s traditional secrecy.

The original reason for Wright’s book (which began as a cooperation with recently deceased journalist Chapman Pincher) stemmed from his former MI5 colleague Lord Rothschild, who encouraged Wright’s allegations against ex-MI5 boss Sir Roger Hollis, so as to deflect earlier charges that Rothschild himself had been a traitor.